Werder Bremen becomes latest football club to quit Elon Musk's X over hate speech concerns

After media organisation The Guardian and football club St. Pauli, Werder Bremen, who play their football in Germany’s Bundesliga, has become the latest major entity to stop posting on X, citing a rise in hate speech since Elon Musk bought the social media platform. Werder announced the decision after a club meeting late Monday, following St. Pauli’s decision last week also to post instead on the Bluesky platform.

Werder had more than a half-million followers for its German-language channel on X, which was named Twitter when the club joined in May 2008.

“Under the guise of freedom of expression, hate speech, hatred towards minorities, right-wing extremist posts and conspiracy theories have been allowed to spread on X at an incredible pace,” the club said in a post in English.

👋 https://t.co/SKDWMeUn67 pic.twitter.com/8MsZqaoFqL

— SV Werder Bremen EN (@werderbremen_en) November 18, 2024

The “recent radicalization” of X meant “a line has been crossed,” Werder said.

Musk was cited in a news release in German on Werder’s website that claimed he used the platform as a political weapon.

Werder is eighth in the 18-team Bundesliga and won the last of its four titles in 2004.

Britain’s The Guardian on Wednesday said it would stop posting content from its official accounts on Elon Musk’s X, calling it a “toxic media platform” filled with “often disturbing content.”